The Wavelength is my newest song. I had been working on it for a few months now. I knew I had the melody and the arrangement figured out but I just didn’t sit down and start to write the lyrics until a few weeks ago and then it came slowly. I would be driving along and think of a new lyric or I’d wake up repeating a line I thought would work. It wasn’t the fastest I ever wrote a song, but it was by no means difficult. I just let it come to me.

The Wavelength is about the wavelengths of sights and sounds. That includes radio and television wavelengths. Also Extraterrestrial and Terrestrial wavelengths. I think the earth and the universe are trying to talk to us but we’re not listening. Not necessarily about anything bad, they’re just lonely. It’s also about the people who use and receive wavelengths. For good and bad.

“The Wavelength”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I did several things different on this song. I used my PreSonus Firebox computer interface for the entire recording. I started using it, but was also recording some on my Fostex. I found myself back on the computer and in the end used it for all the tracks in this song.

Usually I have been recording at 16 bit with a 44.1 KHz sampling rate. That is all my Fostex is capable of. I was going to try 24bit at 96 KHz on the computer but finally settled at 24bit at 48 KHz. The reason was I thought I might be using my new ADAT mike preamp and it is only capable of 44.1 and 48 KHz.

The guitars were all recorded direct through an ART passive direct box. That’s the first time for that too. I used AmpliTube for the bass guitar and Guitar Rig to process the electric guitar sounds. I also miked the acoustic guitar with an MXL condenser microphone.

I played acoustic guitar on my Takamine G-Series jumbo. I played electric guitar on a Fender Stratocaster . The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. I played the drums/percussion on a Roland Octapad using the sounds from Session Drummer 3. I used TruePiano with my Roland slave keyboard for the piano sounds. I processed the instrument and vocal tracks using Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer DAW. I mastered the 100% digital recording using Sony Sound Forge 9 audio editor.